Beetroot, Carrot, Sweet Potato Soup

I brought this to a potluck party, sprinkled lots of black pepper, stuck some freshly pluck basil leaves and asked my friends to guess the vegetables that goes into it. No one got beetroot, which I supposed is a good thing, as even I am not a fan of the red root. Most stared suspiciously at it; they didn't really believed that its soup anyway. Oh well, I guess I did get a little carried away with the amount of sweet potato and it's a little more puree than soup but I do love the thickness so! 

The little toddler boy of our party resolutely said "No!" to the spoonfuls that we tried to feed him unsuccessfully and there I was thinking that it looks just like baby food, or so I thought. Couple of spoons into the soup and thankfully most round the table had good comments for it. Lest you think they were just being polite!?!, most of them finished their share, though some more grudgingly than the rest. Me, I love this soup! This is my 2nd try at this soup recipe, my last was a lot more orange as I used way too little beetroot. Did I mention that I don't like beets already? This time, I used 2 big beets since I was cooking a far bigger portion. The colour came through, so prettily, and the taste was nicely covered by the sweetness of the carrots and sweet potato. Texture was really thick, can be watered down by adding more water but.. I really like the almost-puree style of soup. So hearty, so warming. 

Ingredients: (Scaled down to make a small pot, around 5 soup bowls portion) 

- 1 big beetroot, peeled

- 3 large carrots, peeled

- 3 mid sized sweet potato, peeled

- 1 large onion, quartered

- 1 bulb garlic, peeled and smashed (or leave it whole if you like)

- 1 teaspoon cumin

- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds

- 30 - 50ml coconut milk, depending on preference

- 2 cups of water, more if you like the soup more liquid than thick

- Salt and Pepper to taste

- Basil to garnish 

Steps:

My first try at the soup was done by roasting all the vegetables for 30 minutes first before bringing them to the stove (I love crockpots, from the oven to the store so easily!) and adding the rest of the ingredients. In my second try, I cut and toss the vegetables into a pot and boil them directly with water. I find that roasting the vegetables first makes for a more fragrant soup and it's also faster as the vegetables already broke down from roasting. Both methods work perfectly but guess I would still go with roasting more than boiling directly so here goes:

1.  Clean, wash, peel and cut all the vegetables into smaller cubes

2. Roast the beets, carrots, sweet potato, onions and garlic in the oven at 200C for half hour

3. Transfer into a pot on the stove, add the water, cumin, coriander and continue to cook for 10 minutes

4. Add coconut milk, cook a short while more to have the coconut milk absorbed into the soup

5. Blend, season and garnish

6. Serve hot, pink and sweet!

This has officially overtaken the position of pumpkin as the top soup recipe in my household. Yum!